Chapter Text
“What’s with these storms?” Kaminari asked.
The dome barrier protected them from the elements, even keeping out most of the winds, making the island abnormally calm and quiet. But they could see that, outside of the barrier, the water was choppy and the sky was gray.
Catalina was a more tropical climate, so winds and fog and rain weren’t that uncommon, but the severity outside the dome was way beyond the norm. And it had been going on for days, as if something was still settling down.
“I’ll send a copy to see if the morse code team knows anything,” Setsuna replied, remarking on the small window of information they could receive from the outside world. “Brandon also thinks it’s weird. He hasn’t seen anything like this since a tropical storm hit California, and even that was weak compared to this. He says the navy might even have to retreat if the conditions continue to get worse.”
“Never thought I’d be happy to be under this thing,” Kaminari joked, looking up at the shimmering wall of Magic in the sky.
They had covered about 70% of the island so far, killing Mosaics along the way. However, none of them attempted an attack on Esil’s barrier. It seemed like a strange strategy to Izuku to become defensive all of the sudden. He had expected them to rush the barrier and the class in waves, slowly destroying their progress.
The class was sat around a fire, on the safe side of the wall. They were recovering for tomorrow’s trek. “Why aren’t they attacking us more?”
The response to Izuku’s question came from the darkness of the forest. “Because they finally realize who was on the island with them.”
Everyone shot to their feet, spinning around, desperately looking for the source of the voice.
“Terminator at 12 o’clock!” Mina shouted, pointing towards the mass of black metal and red energy coming towards them. It was the Architect, it was Raia. He was staring right at Izuku.
“Unfortunately, I grow tired of your mortal antics. There’s no time to do this discreetly.”
Izuku sighed. “I understand.” The class was looking around in dazed confusion, except for Iida, Setsuna, and Yui. “I always knew it would come out eventually.”
“Wait… what’s going on? You know this guy?!” Kaminari recognized him from Europa, and while he had saved them, he was still a little freaky looking.
Aizawa’s gaze shone red in an attempt to limit the Mana flow of Izuku. “Are you one of them?”
“You mean a Mosaic?” Izuku shook his head. “I have another identity, but it’s not a Mosaic.” On cue, Baruka and a few of the bears emerged from his shadows. He also manifested his armor - except the helmet - for added effect.
“No… way…” Kaminari couldn’t even look back at Raia, his gaze was so enraptured by the sight before him.
Most of the class, minus the ones that already knew, had a similar response of shock, they just displayed it differently. Mina looked giddy, like she was meeting a celebrity, which she pretty much was. Uraraka was whispering under her breath, putting together the pieces of the Recursive Dungeon. Aizawa just looked relieved. Tokoyami was incredulous and even a little curious. Ibara’s face was hard to read, but it was clear that her religious beliefs weren’t smiling favorably down on a man who brought back the dead. And finally, there was Bakugo. His jaw was slack, his eyes wide.
“Honestly this is for the best,” Izuku responded. “If you ever found out my secret, it was probably gonna be from the news and we know how they mangle information.”
Crickets were all that could be heard. It was so sudden, so out of left field, that no one could string together a full sentence.
“And you wonder why I dislike biological creatures?” Raia scoffed. “Far too much input lag. Did you hear what I said earlier?”
“Yeah, but what I don’t understand is how they know me,” Izuku tried to ignore the class’s attention. Iida, Setsuna, and Yui had all found out his secret before they got to know him properly, and before the Shadow Monarch was a well known name. Everyone else, especially Bakugo, had time to socialize with him and form an imprint of who he was in their mind. He was a somewhat awkward B-Rank who buried himself in books and was generally an easy-going guy. They did not imagine him as the dark figure that could crush continents with Gravity Magic and bring back the dead.
“Anyone in the universe with half a brain cell knows who the Shadow Monarch is. Come on now, you know there’s more to this reality than meets the eye.” His evil grin didn’t help his asshole personality.
“So… you gonna tell me any of that stuff? Anytime soon?”
Raia nodded. “Soon.”
Izuku threw his hands up in the air. “What’s your game?! Are you here to help or not?!”
“Wait… so that was you… in the Recursive Gate?” Uraraka interrupted looking up at Izuku.
Raia’s cackle echoed through the forest. “Aw, look! The little puppy finally caught up to the conversation!”
“Screw you buddy!” Setsuna shouted back. “All you’ve done is heckled us! Either help or piss off!”
“Ah, Nexus’s replacement… I have nothing bad to say to you,” He said with a grin. “I have been helping. Were it not for this dome, your world would already be doomed, unless you were willing to flatten half of California that is. But seeing as you’re too weak to even destroy part of this island, I doubt you could actually make any sort of difficult call on your own. The Shadow Empress is twice the man you’ll ever be,” He said, glaring at Izuku.
“So then… oh shit! Is Yaomomo the Empress?!” Kaminari blurted out.
Izuku, Iida, Yui, and Setsuna sighed in sync. There was no way Kaminari was keeping his mouth shut about anything.
“I still have no idea who you are or what you intend to accomplish here, but for now, can we just quit the sniping and deal with this mess?” Izuku glared right back. “Or are you the sort of king who walks over anyone who’s not ‘on his level?’”
Raia clicked his tongue, which sounded closer to a rifle being fired than the standard sound, but it got his annoyance across all the same. “Let’s get this over with.” He gestured to the barrier, which everyone began walking towards. “And just what do you think you’re all doing?” He asked.
“Uhhh… what you told us to do?” Kaminari said quizzically.
“I’m guessing he only wants Midoriya,” Tokoyami clarified.
“Midoriya and this one,” Raia said, pointing to Setsuna. “The rest of you are rabble for now.”
Izuku put on his helmet, following the mechanical king. “Iida, Yui, you might want to take a moment to explain things to these guys.” He couldn’t help but notice that Bakugo was still staring at the ground, a lifeless husk for the time being.
“So they’re actually gonna open a dialogue with us?” Setsuna asked.
“They’ll talk with us, but don’t mistake that for peace,” He aimed his words squarely at Izuku. “I know how you handled the Tenebris. It’s a pathetic strategy.”
“It worked,” Izuku pointed out.
“And if you had tried to convince the Lux, how do you think that would have gone?”
“I-”
“You got lucky. Ask Kaina how being nice worked in her previous lives.” He sighed. “Izuku Midoriya, I do not have a moral aversion to empathy. But I do have a moral aversion to naivete. You are the exception to the rule, not the rule itself. 99 times out of 100, it’s kill or be killed. You know this. How many times did you nearly die at the hands of Villains?”
“Too many to count,” He responded. “But that was before I could communicate with them.”
“Oh, is communication how World Wars 1 and 2 were ended?” Raia spitefully replied. “With tea parties and nice long chats about morality? Or did they resort to killing until there was nothing left to resist? This is your world, why don’t you tell me?” Izuku’s silence was all he needed to hear. “If wars could be ended with simple chats, I would not be here. There will always be some idiots with power who think they know best. You are no different, Shadow Monarch.” He looked up at the stars as they walked. “I would be the happiest creature in the universe if that was how wars were ended, believe me. But like the NULL Lord learned, violence is a necessity when it comes to making true change for the world.”
“Who’s the NULL Lord?” Izuku asked.
“No one you’ll ever meet. He exists beyond this universe.”
“Is that your entire personality?” Setsuna asked. “To be a mysterious dick?”
Raia averted his eyes. “Once upon a time someone would disagree with you.” It was clear he was purposefully trying to mess with their heads.
Walking through the barrier, Raia apparently was immune to the restrictions Esil had set for it.
“You know I have also killed quite a few individuals?” Izuku pointed out. “I’m kinda… carrying them around with me?”
“You try far too hard to appeal to their ‘morals’ before doing so… aside from maybe Tusk…” Raia nodded. “Yes I believe that was the only time you got truly angry at an enemy and summarily killed them. If only that behavior stuck around.”
“You think I should just be a bloodlust-filled monster?”
“Well, in war that sort of behavior tends to be useful, yes.”
“Innndeeeed…” Shapes began to peek out from the woods. Some of them were human, others were amalgamations of flesh and bone. They were more like spiraling towers of meat than any sort of animalistic shape. “Wisssse wordsss from the Architect…” Izuku couldn’t tell which one of the Mosaics was speaking, but their tone was jovial, like they were mocking the metal man.
“You wanted to speak to me?” Izuku asked, already exhausted with the back and forth with Raia. He just wanted someone to be straightforward and honest with him in a conversation after the mess that was Catalina.
The voice stopped with the slurring and hissing of their syllables, catching wind of Izuku’s emotions. “We did not realize that you were on this planet yet, Shadow Monarch.”
“Yeah, well I’d appreciate it if you could just go back to whatever planet you came from and we won’t need to shed anymore blood.”
“You look the part, you feel the same, but you don’t sound like a Monarch…” Izuku finally realized that the voice was coming from a new body each time it spoke. It was a hivemind after all.
“A Monarch… not the Monarch…” Izuku recalled the brief connection he had to Kaina’s Soul, how they were theorizing about a special National-Rank like the Shadow Monarch being behind Russia’s mass brainwashing. “There are more Monarchs… even Raia mentioned it, so this is confirmation that it’s not just me. Does Momo count as a Monarch, I wonder?”
“Why is that? Because I want to exploit these neanderthals myself? Because I don’t want you getting in the way of my plans for this planet?” Though he was more concerned about the possibility of multiple people with power akin to his, he also caught what the Mosaics were implying.
“Did Raia try to hint to that in preparation for this? Why wouldn’t he just tell me upfront to bluff? Or is this another test of his?” Izuku delicately glanced at Setsuna to tell her to play along, but she was way ahead of him. Her confident stance and smug grin looked the part of a planet conquering menace. Izuku just couldn’t pull that same energy off.
“What plans could there be? Aside from obliterating them?”
“Oi! You think you deserve to know everything?” Setsuna asked, getting right up in the face of one of the Mosaics. “Don’t presume you’re even on the same level as the Shadow Monarch!”
Izuku did his best to hide his embarrassment at Setsuna’s display. It was exactly the sort of thing a cartoon villain would parrot. Actually, it sounded kinda like something Bakugo would come up with thanks to his, albeit fading, superiority complex.
“And who are you to speak against a descendant of Lord Tetrax?”
Setsuna smirked. “Well, I’m one of the Shadow Monarch’s concubines, of course.”
Izuku nearly snorted in shock. “Setsuna’s way too good at playing a role… I’m just standing here!” So far, his strategy to not betray his true emotions had just been to remain stone-faced.
The Mosaics growled in unison, but it wasn’t threatening, more like a grunt of acknowledgement. “Then, your plans also involve the Architect?”
“To an extent,” Izuku replied noncommittally, taking a page from Raia himself.
Strange chittering could be heard, like their malformed bones were scraping against each other.
“Then…” The horde took a long pause, looking amongst themselves.
Izuku found it incredibly unsettling to see a hive mind be so disconcerted. They should’ve been working in perfect harmony, yet here they were… unsure of something.
“Then you have already spoken with Itris?”
“So what if I have?” As Izuku responded, he could feel Raia tense up beside him.
All at once, every Mosaic turned their lips up in a gruesome visage of gore and malevolence. “We have no knowledge of anyone named Itris. Yet you speak of that name as if you know it well…”
“The universe is a big pla-”
“You have his Shadows, his presence, but you are not Him!”
Izuku grumbled in annoyance. “Oh who cares?! I’m so tired of Monarch-this and Primordial-that! You’re living beings too, right?! Just for one second, try and think about not being bloodthirsty killers! Is that so much to ask?!” He let out a heavy sigh as his grievances over the past couple weeks boiled over. The war going on in Japan, the endless horde of intelligent creatures who were totally willing to commit omnicide, and a bunch of celestial entities who were just complete dicks. “I’m talking to you too!” He shouted at Raia.
“Such a weak boy!” The Mosaics chortled and howled as they watched Izuku vent. “You’ll never be able to save them al-” The one speaking was cut off as Izuku blurred forwards and grabbed him by the throat.
“For as long as I live, I will continue to try and save as many as physically possible… even you… deserve a chance, but…” The Mosaic began to tremble, feeling fear for the first time in its life, which it transmitted to the others. “God… I’ve given so many people so many chances.”
Izuku’s Mana began to flare up, completely engulfing the surrounding area. Even Setsuna took a step back and muttered, “Scary…”
“You could’ve landed on this planet, seen the joy and love people were capable of, and back off. You watched these people, you mimicked them. Noah Adler, a regular human, killed four of you because he cared so much for his family that he’d rather fight an endless battle than lead you back to them. Even on death’s door he was thinking about them! Now, tell me again, which one of us is weak?!”
“We-” Izuku completely crushed his head in his hands, spraying blood and brain matter on the forest floor.
“Unfortunately for you all, the Architect is right,” Izuku gave them a grim smile. “It’s kill or be killed.” He clenched his hands tighter. “Empathy or rage? I assure you,” Images of Bakugo flashed through his mind, the humiliation he endured, the shame he felt, “I have more than enough humanity for both.”
Again, Izuku’s form blurred and his hand cut through several dozen Mosaics. Stacking Gravity Magic to boost his movement and enhance the mass of his hand, and Epicenter to send the physical shockwaves rippling, he had completely shredded the horde before them. The explosive force of him moving through the air was enough to shatter their Cores. It wasn’t Magical in nature, so they had no defense. It was all indirect Magical influence that led to physical damage.
“You caught me off-guard before. I wasn’t prepared to use everything. I gave you a chance to back down. You should’ve taken it.” He looked to the next Mosaic, standing perfectly still as he watched Izuku shake off the guts of his fellow brothers and sisters. “Sometimes… there are only so many chances you can give. Sometimes, you know when someone is good,” He looked to Setsuna, and then over to the Mosaic. “And sometimes, you know when something needs to be put down. I’ve been stomaching that truth, because a certain mechanical jerk was bugging me about it,” He gave a pointed glare at Raia. “You’re wrong, and you’re right. I won’t be the war machine you want, but I’ll always fight for the people who count on Heroes.”
“You… You can’t stop us! We’ll always hide, we’ll always find a way to escape and tear this shitty planet apart, piece by piece!”
“Hide?” Izuku’s eyes burned with light. “You can’t hide from gravity.” It was like something had clicked inside of him. Something that made him realize what he was truly capable of. Even against Beru, he’d been holding back to an extent.
Bakugo and Raia had both gotten into his head. Being “weak” had ingrained itself into the daily routine of his life. Slowly, but surely, with the help of his family, he’d cast off those shackles. This was his life. Fuck the System, fuck a secret identity, fuck being “weak.” If he wanted to give someone a chance, that was his choice. It was also his choice to commit to violence when all else failed. He refused to be baited by Raia, and to completely give in to the animalistic urges that he felt.
Izuku wasn’t perfect, he had his own demons, his own rage, his own carnal desires to burn everything down. But if he was going to give into those, it would be on his own terms.
“It’s done!” Setsuna shouted. “I cleared the town!”
The Shadow Monarch took a brief moment to calm himself. He slowly breathed in through his nose, ignoring the stench of gore, and exhaled through his mouth. He gave Setsuna a smile and said, “Good job.”
To the North-East, on Catalina Island, there was a small getaway resort town called Two Harbors. It was the last location that they knew had real humans. Thanks to Jiro’s Sonic Magic, just before they left, she confirmed that aside from Two Harbors, there were no more people outside of Avalon. Setsuna had dispatched several clones to get and exfiltrate them behind Esil’s border. And now… the only thing on that part of the island was wilderness and Mosaics.
Raia believed Izuku could no longer kill the Mosaics en-masse, as they had adapted to his Gravity Magic. But he wasn’t thinking creatively enough.
Reaching out, Izuku felt every last Mosaic on the island. Gravity Magic could map it all out, feel each of their independent centers of mass. He couldn’t crush them directly or even affect them with the Magic, but… the ground beneath them was Izuku’s to use as he saw fit.
He raised his hands to chest level, and the remaining 30% of the island began to tremble. Not just the surface… the entire landmass. Izuku had saved everyone he could, even some of the wildlife. And now, it was time to end it all.
Like a Lego brick separating from one of its brothers, the north end of Catalina island detached from its underground roots, lifting skywards. With it, it carried all of the Mosaics, completely buried underneath the deluge of debris and soil.
Chaos inhabitants were immune to most conventional kinetic weapons. The reason why was that the kinetic weapons didn’t pass the threshold of energy needed to damage them. Izuku had more than enough mass to exert on them.
The remaining 30% of the island completely collapsed on itself, bringing all Mosaics into one clump of soil, stone, and what buildings remained. Millions of tons of matter, being compressed by gravity that exceeded some of the largest bodies in the universe.
Water from the surrounding sea rushed to fill the sudden absence of land, burying the undersides that Izuku had ripped the ground from.
Just for good measure, Izuku dropped the wrecking ball-size mass into the turbulent waters. It wasn’t like any of them were left, but it felt fitting to drop the remains of a hive mind that couldn’t swim to sink beneath the waves.
As the water settled, the air grew still, and everything was quiet once again.
“Hmm…” Raia’s synthetic expression shook Izuku out of his high. He was so enraptured by the power that it gave him a feeling of enlightenment. “You still delayed their eradication by a little more than a week. You could’ve been more useful elsewhere, instead of messing around with this.”
Izuku now fixed his gaze on the Architect. “Alright, now you tell me everything you know, or I'll turn you into a crumpled tin can.”
Raia smirked. “That’s a little better, but I don’t actually believe that you’ll do that. You need to make them believe you’re gonna hurt them.”
“I’m about to-”
Raia raised a hand. “I’ll tell you everything. But first… well, your Empress is fighting a God. I figured you’d want to help her first.”
“What… What do you mean?”
“Well, let’s just say… there are plenty of other Monarchs on this planet, and none of them are quite so kind and naive as you.”
Izuku’s gaze hardened. The fight was still far from over. “Send me to the fight. Right now.”
Raia agreed with excitement in his eyes. “Nothing would make me happier than to watch the war start… for real this time.”
The dome over the island vanished in the blink of an eye, and a portal appeared before Izuku and Setsuna. On the other side was a woman surrounded by locusts and exuding malice. She was surrounded by puddles of blood…